Wednesday, June 26, 2013

T for Texas: A last stand for sanity?

I've been to Ft Worth Texas
It's been awhile. But Ft Worth is still, at heart, a raucous trail head. OK. It's Texas and red. It's also inhabited by characters. Right, Left, middle, Male, Female. Last night a stirring, amazing stand for sanity and hope occurred in the Texas Senate. Senator Wendy Davis (D-Ft Worth) waged a good old-fashioned Mr. Smith Goes To Washington filibusterer. A stand against effectively killing abortion rights and a major attack on women's healthcare in Texas.
This issue was so important to the future of Texas it was a highlight of a special session. God forbid it wait till the normal crazy legislative season.
This bill was every bit as bad as what the RWNJ Ohio Legislature is trying. These bills are so heinous I won't bother t'o summarize. Google the hell out of 'em.
This is all, a concerted effort by Republican Legislatures across The United States. Due to, shall we say, creative redistricting in the wake of the 2010 Census they have basically established one party rule. Thus in their righteous, reactionary literal Bible thumping view they are entitled to ignore the rejection of those despicable ideas in the 2012 election.
Well a Black man stole the Presidency. Again. So it is up to them to impose the Christian Taliban worldview on us Satan possessed heathens.After all we know God expects women to simply be a walking, speaking only when spoken to incubators. Their health, well being and circumstances are secondary to all else.Strong, smart independent women are responsible for the decline of Western Civilization after all. Things ran SO much better when women were chattel. Property with no rights.
Your woman is out of line? Beat her. God says that's cool. She declines sex? Take her anyway. And anyway you want, she is after all, only a receptical. We all know women are too flighty to vote or make decisions due to those mysterious hormones. Women can't be paid equally to a man because, you know, babies. She needs to be home tending the hearth, barefoot and knocked up most of her life, because, Freedom. It's God's will.
I am such a failure as "Old White Male" as oppressor because I stand at this moment in history, and the last 40+ year's, to say "Are you guys out of your MOTHERFUCKING minds????," I hold the the heretical view that women are people, citizens with the same rights as any man.
State Senator Davis, as a Southern woman, with style, passion and the steel, velvet covered fist they wield so well, looked a predominately male Senate in the eye and said NO. No farther. This will not happen.
The Texas Senate after unsuccessfully trying to suspend the the rules to push this abysmal bill through to avoid a filibuster became sticklers for strict enforcement of these archaic rules of engagement.
The men were openly disrespectful and deriding of Ms. Davis. They spoke over and interrupted her.They were so threatened by a woman speaking sanely and forcefully on the Floor they did everything they could to shut her up. After all she is simply a woman not deserving of a modicum of respect. She stood tall and showed America and the world what a woman can do. She stood for equality. Compassion. The right of a woman to decide her own future like any man. This woman needs to be supported after displaying such courage in the face of adversity and her political savvy.
Women in the rest of the State Legislatures need to follow her example. No. No farther. A line needs drawn in the sand. Are we a nation where equality is a given? No, we are not. Women still battle for equality after millennia of being less than nothing. The future is now. We men need to get our dumbasses on the right side of history for a change.
Guys, I'm lonely over here yelling into the darkness of the return of the Middle Ages.
We all should have the courage of this extraordinary woman.
We all need to raise our voices and cry NO!! This will not stand.